Open-to-public day: Expo visitors show interest in Yunnan scenery

Sept 15 marks the open-to-public day of the 14th China-ASEAN Expo, and the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center was packed. Although Yunnan did not mean to show much of its tourism resources at the expo, many vistors still come to the Yunnan exhibit area for the province's famed sceneries.

"I really want to travel to Yunnan for the Yulong(jade dragon) snow mountain in Lijiang and Shilin (stone forest) in Kunming." At a Yunnan tourism poster, Nanning citizen Zhang Yang was posing for cameras against Yunnan scenery.

Zhang thinks that Guangxi and Yunnan are complementary in tourism resources, and the newly-opened high-speed railway has shortened the travel hours between the two places. "I hope Guangxi and Yunnan could further cooperate to make concerted effort in tourism promotion."
　　
Under the theme of "Co-Building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Promoting Regional Economic Integration through Tourism", the four-day expo is highlighted by cross-border tourism.

"I think Yunnan and Guangxi should join hands with ASEAN countries to design and operate a tourist ring route." Wang, a travel enthusiast from China's eastern Zhejiang Province, said he traveled to Laos via Yunnan's Xishuangbanna in 2016, and his plan this year is to visit Vietnam via Guangxi's Fangchenggang.

On Sept 13, China-ASEAN Business Leaders Forum, a sideline of the expo, focused on cross-border tourism cooperation in the region, where officials and representatives from business and think tanks shared their visions for this matter.

In 2016, more than 38 million visits happened between China and ASEAN, with around 2,700 flights operated weekly. While China became ASEAN's top overseas tourist source country, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philipines all contributed more than one million tourists to China respectively.

Reporting by Eric Wang, Zhu Hai in Nanning